New Years Resolutions? Don't bother
 

NY resolutions a failure
By John Sheed
31dec03

IMPULSIVE New Year resolutions were almost guaranteed to fail, a researcher has warned.

Dr Duncan Murray, of Queensland's Griffith University, said people usually aimed high with "big ticket" resolutions like losing weight, giving up smoking or getting rid of credit card debt.
However, they failed to consider the implications of what they were attempting.

Dr Murray, who admitted he did not make New Year resolutions, said his findings were based on a year-long survey of people who resolved last year to lose weight and get fit and who had joined a gym.

He said the survey had identified 160 people in two categories ? those who had spent a month or more planning how they would implement their resolution and those who made an impulse decision.









"We found that of the people who had considered their resolution before making it, almost half were still going at the end of the year," Dr Murray said.

"But only about one in six who made an impulse resolution were still going at the end of the year."

Dr Murray said the main reason given for quitting had been lack of time ? but the study had revealed quitters were not significantly more bound by time pressures than those people that kept going.

He said people who stuck to their resolutions had prioritised their participation at a higher level and taken into consideration issues such as the needs of partners.

"For people who make impulse resolutions, real-life situations come along and knock them for six and it's easy then to get knocked off the program," Dr Murray said.

He said anyone just beginning to think about making a resolution would benefit by not rushing to start tomorrow.

"Spend all of January at least thinking about that resolution, maybe with a start date in mind of the first of February or the first of March when you've really considered the implications of it.

"If you jump in feet first you are far more likely to fail," Dr Murray said.

I did pretty well with mine last year. Been working out 5 times a week & down to the same weight I was in high school. :thumbsup